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10 Mar 2007 10:16 am

A First Question for HRC

The big-money gays at the Human Rights Campaign don't apparently understand that I have editorial control over my own blog. So they contacted the Atlantic editors to complain that I did not reprint their entire letter on the blog. I edited out about 20 percent of it, because it was boilerplate, or complaining that I'm uninterested in a private meeting, or noting that I've been an occasional speaker for them in the past. But since they asked, here are the opening two paragraphs that I lopped off for concision:

I would like to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to respond to your blog posting about the Human Rights Campaign.

Before diving into the numbers, it is worth pointing out that HRC’s membership has grown to a healthy 650,000 members and supporters nationwide. Together, we do not presume to speak for the entire GLBT community, but we are proud to give voice to some of the hardest working, most strategic and most passionate GLBT and straight-supportive people in this country working for equality.

Vital stuff, isn't it? It also contains a very questionable statistic. Check out this story from the Washington Blade. Money quote:

HRC membership numbers include the name of every person who has ever once given at least the minimum amount — currently $1 — and provided an address, said spokesperson Steven Fisher this week... This means that someone who donated a dollar or made a small purchase from the HRC store years ago is considered from that time forward an HRC member, even in death unless HRC specifically learns of the person's demise.

The membership never declines. And it's so "healthy" it includes quite a few corpses - and the gay community has had hundreds of thousands of such corpses in the recent past. If you're dead, you have to write in and let them know. So here's my first, open, transparent, simple question to HRC:

The mimimum membership fee on your website is $35. How many members paid $35 or more in annual dues in the last twelve months? You claim 650,000. What's the real number? Please provide documentation to prove it.

Let's see how long it takes them to provide an honest answer. They've got my email address.

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